Home sharing will NOT allow sharing.

I would try working through the troubleshooting document first and reporting back

Thanks. Already have been through all of that... several times.

I just wanted to say that I am experiencing the same thing with not being able to see Home Sharing listed on the itunes sidebar on my MBP. I am a brand new mc user only having my first mac since 1/25. I have been thru the troubleshooting document and cant see that I have anything I need to change. I have both my MBP and an iPad 4 set up for home sharing. I dont know if this is relevant or not, I bought the songs from the iPad thru the itunes store and due to icloud I think, the only way they show up on my MBP is under purchased and to be downloaded. Maybe that's correct, idk. I am just trying to get Home Sharing to show up in the MBP sidebar.

If you only have one (1) computer on your network with iTunes Home Sharing enabled then Home Sharing computers will not show up in the iTunes sidebar.

I only have one computer, and am using that computer's Airport connection to share internet. I also have an apple TV. Apple TV will not connect to home share, even though I have it turned on in both devices, and am using the same apple ID. Airplay works, (sort of).

any suggestions?

DukerMac,

In your case it may be a network problem. If the Mac and the Apple TV cannot see each other on the network then Home Sharing will not work.

What are the IP addresses assigned to each of the Mac and the Apple TV. They should be on the same subnet.

For example:

If the Mac has an IP address assigned to it of 10.0.5.2 and the Apple TV has an IP address assigned to it that is 10.0.10.3 they will not see each other on the network. The first three groups of numbers in their IP address must match.

For example:

If the Mac has an IP address assigned to it of 10.0.5.2 then the Apple TV must have a similar IP address like 10.0.5.15. Notice only the last group of numbers is unique.

Check the network settings on the Mac and Apple TV and report back here what IP addresses they have.

Well, you are right, I do only have one computer but 2 iPads setup for Home Sharing. Does that not matter?

No, the iPads don't show up on the Mac iTunes sidebar as Home Sharing devices.

iTunes on a computer can share it's media (Music, Movies, TV Shows, etc) with other computers and iOS devices (function as a server) but iOS devices (iPod Touchs, iPhones, iPads) cannot share the media stored on them. iOS devices can only be clients not servers of media.

It seems like everything is normal in your case.

Thank you. I find out so much on this forum.

Ok, in your example, you say the IMac and the ATV must have the same IP 1st three groups.

What about the router, and the WIFI?

My ethernet shows an IP with the first 2 groups being the same,(AAA.bbb.ccc.ddd) but it also says the router has same group one and two but the 3rd and 4th group differ. ( AAA.bbb.eee.f using DHCP.) the internet is connected.

my WIFI choses to be completely different (xxx.yyy.zzz.158(Using DHCP).(or nothing if I select "off") (and says "cannot connect with Internet") but actually does because I have "share internet" from Ethernet to Wifi.

My ATV has an entirely different TTT.SSS.2.1, but is connecting to my wifi and internet. (using DHCP) It also will connect to AirPlay in Itunes. But no homeshare. * I get Apple movies, TV, netflix etc, but no home share.

So now what?

It sounds like your current network configuration is a mess and likely the cause of all your problems.

Since I don't know your network configuration I'm going to explain the basics of networking in simplified terms. It is by no means a complete explanation of networking but should be enough for you to get a basic understanding of what a properly configured network looks like. Hopefully you can glean enough knowledge from it to get your network in order.

Normally a network comprises of an Internet bridge device, a Cable or DSL modem that connects your private Local Area Network (LAN) to the Internet or Wide Area Network (WAN).

This bridge device (Cable/DSL modem) is usually but not always also a router. A router's job is to router data back and forth between the Internet on the WAN side and your computers and devices on the LAN side. If your bridge device (Cable/DSL modem) is not a router than you would have a separate device performing that function.

Routers are sometimes referred to as base stations. Apple's AirPort base stations (Express/Extreme/Time Capsules) are all routers. Computers can also be routers. When you turn on Internet Sharing on a Mac or Windows PC your are essentially turning it into a router.

The WAN side of the router has a unique IP address assigned to it by your ISP so that it can connect to the Internet and communicate with all the other Internet connected devices.

The LAN side of your router is where all your devices (Computers/Mobile Devices/Game Consoles) connect to. It's the router's job to assign each device on your LAN a unique IP address using the DHCP protocol. To ensure that all the devices on the LAN can communicate with each other as well as the Internet the router assigns addresses in the same subnet.

When you set up networking on each device you must ensure that they all connect to the same router and they are all using the same subnet mask (usually 255.255.255.0). The subnet mask determines how large the range is of IP addresses used by the network. The subnet mask must be the same on all devices or else some devices will be assigned IP addresses that are outside the range of addresses used by the network. This will prevent them from communicating with each other.

In your case you appear to have many routers, possibly the Cable/DSL modem from your ISP is a router, a Wi-Fi device and the Mac that has Internet Sharing turned on. You need to decide which router all the devices are going to connect to and configure all your devices appropriately. I would start by turning off Internet sharing on the Mac.

The ideal router is the one that is connected directly to the Internet which could be your Cable/DSL device. If it is just a bridge device then the router connected to it is your next best choice.

If your router can do Wi-Fi then all your wireless devices should be connecting to it. If not then you will need to add a Wi-Fi base station to the network for the wireless devices to connect through. In that case the Wi-Fi base station should be configured as a bridge only. This will allow wireless devices to use it to connect to the network but still connect to the same router as all the other devices.

Here are some screen shots of my router (Time Capsule) and various network devices.

In my case, the DSL modem from my ISP is only a bridge device (I've disable it's routing capabilities.) The routing is handled by the Time Capsule. I also have an AirPort Express that is configured to be a bridge only. It is extending the wireless network and is also connected to a stereo amplifier to provide AirPlay. It does not do any routing.

As you can see the WAN side of the router has been assigned a unique public IP address by my ISP 70.31.140.172.

On the LAN side I assigned the router a private IP address of 10.0.2.1

Here are the network settings for my MacBook Pro.

It is connecting to my router at IP address 10.0.2.1

It's subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

It has been assigned an IP address using DHCP of 10.0.2.207

Here are the network settings for my iPhone.

It is connecting to my router at IP address 10.0.2.1

It's subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

It has been assigned an IP address using DHCP of 10.0.2.203

Here are the network settings for my Apple TV.

It is connecting to my router at IP address 10.0.2.1

It's subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

It has been assigned an IP address using DHCP of 10.0.2.200

I can see that on your network, you have an airport base station that you are using to connect to the internet. So you do not use internet sharing. If I do not use internet sharing, I cannot create a new network with the WIFI and My ATV simply will not work without sharing. So turning off internet sharing is not an option.

Up until a month ago, I was on OSX 10.6.2. (SnowLeopard)I have 1 IMac, and 1 ATV. I also have a new Iphone, but I'll leave that out for now. I do not have an airport base station.

For the last 3 years, I have been able to use DHCP to connect to the internet via ethernet. I have also been able to create a local network using DHCP and a wep password for my IMac's airport. I have then been able to share my internet connection over the IMac's airport to the ATV. This would connect my ATV to both the internet for Netflix etc. and it would also allow HomeSharing.

One month ago, I "upgraded" to OSX 10.8.2 (Mountain Lioin) and that is when everything went haywire.

What has changed in OSX 10.8.2 to create this problem? Is it no longer possible to create a computer to computer (or ATV) network that uses the shared internet connection? It certainly doesn't seem to do so when using DHCP! Can I manually make it work? Is my only choice to go out and buy a base station?

It is certainly possible that changes in Mountain Lion are your problem but I don't know the make up of your network to know for sure.

Why don't you give me more info and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction.

Is the cable/DSL modem provided by your ISP also a router? What is the make/model?

If it is only a modem what is the device that is making the initial network connection to the Internet? Is that the iMac that has Internet Connection Sharing turned on? Is it connecting to the Internet using DHCP or PPPoE?

Let's start with that for now.

If you have Internet Sharing turned on, your computer is acting as a router.

After following advice from Apple Support, my problem was resolved by buying a router.

To function correctly, the home sharing feature requires that both the home sharing computer and the ATV be connected to the same network. If the iMac is acting as a router, it isn't actually on the network, but is the one supplying the network. Having Internet Sharing turned on did work in Lion but apparently not in ML.

I am using a wireless internet USB dongle, so I bought a 3rd party wireless router that was compatible with it. That way the Mac and the Apple TV are connected to the same network, therefore fulfilling the system requirements as described in the article below:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2972

This works for me, including when the display is asleep, but not if the computer is asleep. The bonus is that AirPlay also now works.

Cable modem is NOT acting as a router. I was previously able to use my IMac's Airport as the router, as Woorooden suggests. I can only assume that this functionality is now gone with ML. I had hoped there was another solution besides adding yet another device. It is strange that the network WILL work for all internet connections, but will not work device to device for homesharing, especially since I CAN get AIRPLAY to work, which is computer to computer, Itunes being on the Imac and the music playing through the ATV.

Sorry for not providing the actual settings, but I am not comfortable doing that on a public post. I don't know the networking protocals well enough to know how much is safe to reveal. and I am overly cautious. I do note that my subnet mask is using 255.255.248.0 instead of the usual 255.255.255.0 but that is what is coming up on the DHCP mode.